In the installation of telecommunications equipment, a number of situations exist which require the connection of corresponding conductors of two conductor groups such as for example between conductors of two cables. These situations differ in their requirements and thus various types of multiple conductor connectors have come into being with features designed to meet the particular requirements. For example, in telephone central offices there is a need to interconnect conductors through splicing, half tapping and bridging as well as to simply terminate conductors singly or in groups to a connector block for future use.
In several kinds of these multiple conductor connectors, a slotted beam contact element is used to establish the electrical connection between two conductors. The slotted beam contact element has double ended bifurcated beams with the furcations at each end forming a conductor-receiving slot therebetween. It is capable of penetrating conductor insulation and of making reliable electrical and mechanical connections between two conductors.
One type of multiple conductor connector is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,099,822 which issued on July 11, 1978 in the names of A. W. Carlisle and D. R. Frey. Conductors to be spliced are dressed about a two-sided mandrel which has a separate guide channel for each conductor. Each mandrel is received in a chamber of a mandrel holder which is double sided to accommodate two mandrels. The holder includes, for example, four staggered rows of slots symmetrically formed in each major face. An end of a slotted beam contact element extends through each slot to engage the corresponding conductor that is mounted around the mandrel and aligned beneath each slot. The contact elements are inserted into staggered rows of slotted openings in a plastic housing to form a connector module with the ends contained in individual protective towers extending outwardly from either side of the module. Each tower mates with one of the slots of the mandrel holder. An assembly of wired mandrels and holders comprises a receptacle for receiving two contact modules.
The successful introduction and use of this connector has necessitated the implementation of efficient assembly techniques for its component parts. For example, the assembly of the contact elements with the plastic housing to form the connector module must be accomplished at a high rate of production. However, difficulties have been encountered in devising automatic assembly apparatus for the machine assembly of these relatively small metallic parts with a plastic block. In a similar connector which is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,858,158 which issued on Dec. 31, 1974 in the names of R. W. Henn et al., a connector module included only one row of contact elements held between mating plastic parts. The assembly of such a module is far simpler than one which incudes four rows of contact elements complicated by the staggering of the rows.
What is needed and what does not appear to be provided by the prior art are methods and apparatus for the assembly of a plurality of rows of contact elements with a plastic housing. While the prior art may show the use of taped strips of contact elements which are spaced apart on the strips as required by their final placement in the plastic block, it does not appear to include an uncomplicated method of transferring these elements from their carrier strip into the staggered rows of slots.